Global Crisis Hits Burmese Overseas Workers

By MIN LWIN

The global financial crisis is affecting overseas employment agencies in Rangoon, with many agencies likely to close and thousands of Burmese workers’ jobs in jeopardy, according to sources in the former capital.

Of the 132 overseas employment agencies in Rangoon registered with the Ministry of Labor, at least 50 will go out of business in the near future due to the fall in demand for Burmese workers abroad, said the director of an overseas employment agency who preferred to remain anonymous.

All the Rangoon agencies have seen their revenue decrease, with most losing contracts to provide Burmese workers to foreign countries such as Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and the Middle East, according to sources within the agencies.

The demand for migrant laborers—such as construction workers, housemaids, agricultural workers and factory workers—has reduced drastically since the global financial crisis took effect in late 2008.

“We will not renew our company registration this year, because we have no idea when the crisis will end,” said an official from an overseas employment agency in Kyauktada Township in Rangoon.

The Burmese labor ministry doubled the annual fee for overseas employment agencies in February last year. Each agency now has to pay the government an annual fee of 5 million kyat (US $4,739.33).

In addition, each agency must account for no less than 300 workers’ contracts per year. If they are unable to do so, their licenses are revoked.

“We have not received any offers of workers’ contracts since November,” said a staff member at the Thu Kha Su San Service Company, a well-known overseas employment agency in Rangoon.

While most illegal migrants—some estimates run as high as 5 million—head to neighboring Thailand, most of the overseas agencies’ contracted workers are sent to Malaysia. Workers’ rights groups estimate that about 500,000 Burmese migrants work in Malaysia—mostly in restaurants, on construction sites, rubber plantations and in factories—about two-thirds of whom are registered with overseas employment agencies.

However, since the global meltdown began, hundreds of Burmese workers in Malaysia have lost their jobs and have been sent home.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Ye Min Tun from the Malaysia-based Burma Workers' Rights Protection Committee said that more than 700 Burmese migrants have been forced to return home since late November because of the fall in demand, while others have had their times or salaries cut.

He quoted the Human Resources Department in Malaysia as saying recently that more than 6,000 Burmese workers will be sent home after Chinese New Year (January 26) due to the turmoil in global financial markets.

Between 60 and 70 percent of young people (aged 18- 35) are jobless in Burma and many seek work abroad. Jobs in Japan or South Korea have been particularly sought after by young Burmese since the 1990s.